St Patrick's Day

'Yah rder yahrhaving  sidebrrrah *yardiyaarrrrr' Man with facepaint in the toilet.

Dublin. What a place. I had the chance to either go to Loughborough Uni or to Trinity Uni in Dublin. After long consideration I opted for the former one, mostly based on the content of my modules. As much as I have come to love the people in Luvbro, I must say it stings a bit to know that I missed out on the chance to take over such a wonderful place as Dublin.

(I deliberately left some pics bigger, to make justice to the content. Scroll to the right for full visual pleasure. It's a bit unpractical for the reader, yes, but one must get the full experience.)

They have excellent beers, the city is just the correct amount of wide and long streets and they have the goaddamn euro!

Anyway. We went there to celebrate the late, great St Patrick who made Ireland Catholic (I guess? What was the deal again?). Planning started a month ago, even though it never got anywhere. Planning ahead is not my thing, I usually just improvise and go with the stream. In the end we only did have two days, but I feel we made the best out of the short time we had.

On st Paddy's I wore facepaint all day, which was received with mixed reactions. Yes, it was a bit uneven, but in my defense, I had 5 minutes to apply it and the green kept getting on the white. Anyways. The tour guide in Jameson told me I looked terrifying in the dark while he tried to explain the process of mixing the barley. He said I reminded him of Slade from Arrow. Sara said I was a Joker. A random man on the street simply put his arm around me and took a selfie with me. And then there was the man in the toilet of O'Finneys (What was the first bar called, guys? I keep forgetting!?). He had similar face-paint and he yelled something indistinguishable at the look of my face, which I replied with equally nonsensical yelling. In the toilet. As we boys do.

The Hotel

I had great expectations for Clifden House and they were exceeded. We had a whole apartment: two stories with a nice living room, kitchen three bedrooms and a double-bed. A good alternative for a hostel. Also, Peter <3 gave the best service! I swear, the man would run to town in the middle of the night to fetch you a fresh bagel, if you asked him.

Howth

Simply breathtaking. 25 minutes outside of Dublin by train, the old town simply is an embodiment of my future as a hermit.

The Old Man and the Sea

I tell you, that will be me, walking up the cliffs of the old town with my Irish Setter, whose name I cheekily will steal from my Dad's dog, my best furry friend, Puskin. Each Sunday, we go for some fish'n'chips and a cool ale. As a side-note, we had the joy to taste some brew by Hope Brewery (The Handsome Jack was one of the better IPA:s I've tasted in a while, check it out https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/hope-beer-handsome-jack/361690/).

Jameson Distillery

Becoming godsized

Yes. We took a tour in the Jameson Distillery. As people might know, I work with alcohol so the trip was purely professional. The tour consisted of a short video introduction, a simulated walk trough the distillery and a whiskey tasting.



We compared Jameson to a Scotch one (I fail to remember which one, but it was a 12 year old, the only kind of 12 year old a man is allowed and expected to desire) and (gulp) Jack Daniels. I impressed myself by finishing the presenters sentence about american bourbon being made of maize and corn.

A Scot, an Irishman and a Yank walk into a bar

'It's distilled three times, which gives Jameson its distinct smooth taste'. I feel like I heard this sentence a lot. The tour was definitely worth the money and time. We were offered complimentary drinks. We could pick between a regular whiskey, but we opted for the drink, which had lime and ginger mixed with the booze.

The St Patrick's Day Parade

Nobody knows, but it was great

You've all seen this on TV and know the drill. Let the picture talk for themselves. I think it was Lucie who commented that I smiled throughout the parade. It's true. I felt like a little child watching the craziness and genuine good spirit.





Ireland seems like a country that has established its own strong identity, that any tourist is happy to adopt. It was nice to see a national parade, where nationalism did not seem like a threatening thing. It was all bout the love for a great people.












'You either wanna take mushrooms or go to St Paddy's. It has the same effect'. So one traveler hilariously pointed out to me. They played Irish bagpipes, they played David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Blackeyed Peas, the Star Wars Theme, and that one kick-ass song the Dropkick Murphy's covered and was featured on tHe Departed (I'm Shipping Up To Boston), and they even played some crazy .. I wanna say techno, which was almost as weird as the Eye the were dancing to in the pic above.

'Your haircut i ooot-deyted!' ('outdated' in stout-fueled Irish) Irishman in Parnell's Clubhouse

Lil Constantin and his two green fairies

A man came over and told me this. Not once but four times. I must say, I admire the Irish for their bluntness and great sense of humor. The man was clearly taking the piss, and I just could not help but laugh. I love the quick wit and cheekiness.

Next stop. Tipsyville

So. This was pretty much a stream-of-consciousness kind of text. I did not sleep last night as we spent it at the airport. I went straight to my lecture once I arrived to Luvbro and I'm writing this with my last power of staying alive.. awake. Still have some paint on my face, as the sideburns are red on one side and green on the other. Whoa. Hopefully You found this a fun read. And hey! If I sold this well, I hope someone got inspired and wants to celebrate the next St Paddy's with me in Dublin, as I'm definitely going!

Good pie!

On online commentators and arguments in general

I've been preoccupied to write anything lately and feel slightly disappointed in myself. This blog has taught me some things about myself. Not via the things I write, but rather what I do not write. Or what I choose to leave unpublished.

Last week, dear reader, You were spared of my rant fueled by social justice and arrogant (?) worldsavingplans. I started the same text three times about the same subject but could not get myself to finish it. I was mostly annoyed by the way I chose to write. See, I have little respect for bad online commentators. This makes me extremely critical of my own online opinions.

For this, I am surprised at how many online discussions I have engaged in on Facebook, Helsingin Sanomat, you name it. As I rarely do this, I wonder if studying abroad somehow has affected me. Because I only argue about stuff currently happening in Finland. I do however only comment on stuff I know something about, and can say I have more to give than just a bleeding heart.

I crave good argumentation. I do not feel a discussion needs to end in one party 'winning the argument'. For me, the most important is that each party gets their point through in an adult, and logical manner. The 'truth' should be determined by yourself only. If someone  convinces you to think differently then you might have learned something new. But most people forget that arguments are not the same as convincing the other that you are right. It's supposed to be an opportunity for each to explore every aspect to a matter and possibly find common ground. There is not always a common ground. And that is okay.

Post-modernists have argued that all should be perceived reflexively. This means that everything should be questioned. Everything is political. There is no 'truth'. You just have to keep on to your best sources and hope you are well-informed.

Global warming. It's man-made. But one might also say that we've only measured the climate for a billionth of the earth's existence, so can we really prove the globe is warming? I do know where I stand on this issue, but if someone else does not, I cannot blame them! Humankind is dependent of science, but it is strictly political which voice is correct, yo!

These issues hindered me from writing my blog-text last week. I was appalled by a discussion program that was broadcast last week. I know exactly what went wrong in the program, as non-white people were racialized by many participants and the journalists did not problematise any statements made by either party of the panel. Yet I held my rant for myself mostly because I did not feel i had the energy or the will to write the umphteenth blog-rant about these issues. I assure you, the social media was filled with these the next day. I do not have the best answers to these questions, and I leave them to the smarter people. My wish is that I one day am an expert of some kind on issues (I dunno, culture, urban politics, whatever job I get eventually) and that day I will actively write blogs about these issues and try to provide some answers.

My point is, I avoid doing any holier-than-thou-statements online as long as I do not have concrete answers to give. I can go on about the right and wrongs with my (bleeding) heart, but what do I achieve by fighting an illitertae redneck online? To all internet commentators I wish they would take their time to try to understand the opposing part. Left, right, liberal, conservative, marvel, dc, apples, oranges, whatever. Things do not need to be polarized and labelled.

Phuh.. a text about nothing but random thoughts. Hopefully it gave you something. At least I got to let out steam. I will one day maybe, provide You with actual pictures and just updates on my life in Lufbra. Writing a normal journal just proves to hard for me. Anyway, in a couple of weeks I will probably travel a bit, so maybe you'll get sunny pics of buildings and food then.

All of my love to all! Peace

And just to make it clear: 'illitertae redneck' was a joke. I know how to spell-check illiterate. Not on whatsapp thou..